staterecap

   One word sums up state this year. FAST!! The girls division III race actually was probably the fastest. Angela Homan from Spencerville led the lead pack through the mile in a blistering 5:20! Homan then kept on the pressure and pulled away until she hit the stadium. With about 200 meters to go, reaching the final turn, Homan's body gave out. What ensued was two and a half minutes of the most heart I've ever seen. Homan crawled, stumbled, and fell her way to the line to finish 62nd in 20:14. Before her body betrayed her, she was on pace to easily run 17:30 or faster. She was, in my opinion, absolutely the best runner there today. As it was though, two freshman provided for an exciting finish with Minster's Sunni Olding edging Hopewell Loudon's Carime Reinhart, 18:17 to 18:18 for the title. The highest finishing NEO girl was Kim Nemergut in 3rd in 18:28. Minster won the team title 85 to 140 over Seneca East. The top NEO team was McDonald in 3rd place.
    In the division two race, Napoleon's Emily Schnitkey could not find her groove and what I though might happen: did. Circleville's Abbey Reeser, one of the best big race runners in the stare, popped a good one. Reeser ran 18:17 to hold off Beaumont's freshman Maggie Infeld in 18:19 and CVCA's Amy Arnold in 18:23. The top 5 girls in this race will all be back next year. I can't wait for the rematch. In the team race, Beaumont won, surprise, surprise. This year they held off second place Napoleon 99 to 139.
     In the division one race, the last of the day, it was the Colerain girls coming up big. They won the title over a 5th place Jackson and an off day for Strongsville which finished 6th. The best performance by a team was turned in by the Medina girls. Lindsay Wojciak led the charge in 18:55 to lead Medina in their exceptional race. The individual race saw four girls initially battle early in the race: Lakewood's Michelle Sikes, East's Lindsay Zinn, Anderson's Chelsea Homan, and Dublin Coffman's Jill Miller. The pack was eventually whittled down to two: Sikes and Zinn. The experienced Zinn pulled away from Sikes in the stadium to win in 17:42 to Sikes' 17:48. Elyria's Molly Hammer came up for third in 18:09.
     In conclusion, it was a day full of your normal surprises. My first impressions are this: Coach Phil Brewer of Medina had his team the most ready of any area team. Congrats! Beaumont will rule for years to come. And I would not want to race Angela Homan next year. It could really get ugly.

Congrats to everyone that competed!